Environmental perception in traditional communities: a study in Soure Marine Extractive Reserve, Pará, Brazil

Abstract

The Soure Marine Extractive Reserve, located in the Marajó Archipelago, was created to protect its biodiversity and guarantee the sustainability of its ecosystems. Despite of it, local environmental problems have increased. In this sense, this study aimed to quantify the level of environmental perception, in four categories, of communities settled within this conservation unit, based on a score classification (from 1 to 10). To this end, questionnaires were created with the structure of a 5-point Likert scale and applied to the participants. The results were quantified and revealed high scores (above 9) in the four categories analyzed, indicating a high level of perception. Perception was associated with age, schooling and number of people in the household. As a high level of perception was found, it is recommended that the awareness-raising actions carried out by the managing body of the reserve be maintained in order to preserve this knowledge.

Are perceptions of climate change in Amazonian coastal communities influenced by socioeconomic and cultural factors?

“…Therefore, the knowledge shown by the high levels of agreement in the statements of this category of analysis, coherent or not with the currently observed patterns of weather conditions, comes mainly from the traditional knowledge developed from the close relationship that the communities have established with nature. Such knowledge has enabled a deep understanding of the dynamics and functioning of local ecosystems, since the high environmental perceptions in the Soure Marine Extractive Reserve are anchored in traditional knowledge [ 47 , 63 ].…”

“…The high level of understanding of the studied phenomenon is based on traditional knowledge, revealing a deep knowledge about the functioning and dynamics of local ecosystems [ 47 ]. The results presented here highlight the importance of the Resexmar Soure's management body, which developed awareness raising activities with the communities.…”

“…To quantify the level of agreement of the community members with the statements, a scale was developed (following Assis et al [ 47 ]) categorizing the level of agreement into scores. We considered 2 as the baseline value (minimum score) and 10 as the threshold value (maximum score) ( Table 2 ).…”

“…The Marine Extractive Reserve of Soure (Resexmar Soure) is a traditional coastal community located in the eastern Amazon [ 25 ]. The populations that reside within the community perform sustainable practices of use and management of natural resources [ 26 ]. Such, activities derive from their close relationship with nature, and from the awareness activities carried out by the Chico Mendes Institute for Biodiversity Conservation (ICMBio) in partnership with Teaching and Research institutions through projects focused on Environmental Education [ 27 ].…”